I join with colleagues in condemning yesterday's brutal attack on the young child in Navan. I express my sympathy and solidarity on behalf of Labour with the family and young boy concerned. I hope he makes a speedy recovery. It was an appalling attack. We all join in sympathy with him and his family.

Yesterday, we learned that global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years according to the World Meteorological Organization. This rise in temperature is fuelled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases that come from our continued overreliance on fossil fuels. There is a high likelihood that temperatures will rise well above the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement to which this State signed up.

We know now there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest ever recorded on this planet. Time is running out for our environment. We in Ireland - the land of rain and clouds - all too often dismiss the impact of global warming or think it will not happen to us and will not be felt here and that the effects of climate change will be felt by other people. Of course, that is not the case. The impacts will and are being felt here. In Dublin, while we are fortunate to be a stone’s throw from the sea, increasing temperatures and climate change mean that sea levels will rise and many of our seafront communities, including those in my own constituency, will be hit with destructive flooding for which we are totally unprepared.

I did not come here to fearmonger or scaremonger on climate. I came here to ask the Government to do more to address the reality of climate change because Irish emissions are continuing to soar despite the looming catastrophe. According to EUROSTAT, Ireland had the largest increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union last year. It was one of just four EU countries to increase emissions annually at a time when we are all committed to reducing emissions.

The Government has sought to make excuses and deflect from these figures, but the reality is that while other European countries like Finland took proactive steps to cut their usage of gas, for example, we did nothing. We knew this was coming but rather than invest in climate infrastructure that could see a reduced reliance on fossil fuels, the Government has been pouring taxpayers' money into paying for carbon credits at a time when we could be a leader in reducing reliance on gas through developing our great natural resource and developing our offshore wind capacity. We are lagging behind on that.

There are actions we could be taking today to begin a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We can reduce our reliance on gas, like they did in Finland, by ramping up our offshore wind generation capacity. Last week's option was a welcome step, but it is simply not enough. Second, we could introduce many more measures on reducing gas emissions from cars. A punitive tax on gas-guzzling SUVs, like that introduced in France, would be one practical step for which we in Labour have advocated, just as we advocated for a €9 climate ticket that would be valid on all public transport and could take thousands of cars off the roads and reduce costs for families and households while proactively reducing our emissions. I ask the Tánaiste to take up these constructive steps that would have a real impact on enabling us to meet our climate targets.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I read a summary of that report, which is very serious in terms of the short-term impacts arising from climate change and a projection over the next five years in terms of rising sea levels but also rising temperatures and, in some instances, excessive rainfall in northern Europe. The reality is that climate change is here.

Some of the big events arising out of climate change will not happen post 2050 as was the original scientific consensus a decade ago; the idea that if we do not act, terrible events will happen post 2050. The terrible events have happened all over the world in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Europe last year and will continue to happen over the next number of years.

I have no argument with the Deputy in respect of us doing everything we possibly can to ramp up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This Government is doing so through the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the Climate Change Advisory Council that has been established and the carbon budgets that have been proposed by the Government. I would argue that this is the first real, significant, comprehensive, integrated approach across different departments that has occurred for quite a considerable time building, to be fair, on the 2019 climate plan.

The Deputy is not scaremongering. We do need to continue the debate, however. That is why I welcome Deputy Bacik raising this issue. Every time the Government makes a number of moves, some sector or group will always say there is a reason why it should not happen in their sector. That happened with the carbon tax initially. I am glad we withstood all the pressure to suspend the carbon tax during the height of the energy crisis. Pressure came on us from parties not to go ahead with it but we held the line. Why? To provide money for retrofitting and funding for fuel poverty and environmentally friendly farming, as well as being a disincentive for the excessive use of fossil fuels. Adaptation is something we need to ramp up, working with local authorities across the country because of the reality of climate change in the here and now. The Deputy referenced sea levels. If I am honest, there has to be a much stronger focus on the adaptation side of the equation as well as the prevention side.

We have made progress in terms of Irish power generation and industrial companies covered by the EU emissions trading scheme, for example, which went down by 4% overall. Emissions decreased by 2% from the electricity generation sector in 2022. Industrial emissions decreased by more than 7%, with cement industry emissions decreasing by almost 9% in 2022. Aviation, on the other hand, increased dramatically by approximately 94%, which was probable a bounce back from Covid-19, compared with 2021. Ireland's economic growth has been an outlier in Europe. The economy is growing much stronger than other European countries and our population is also increasing.

Those are challenging factors in respect of our response to climate change.

We in the Labour Party have always sought to support any constructive and progressive measures on climate advanced by the Government. Equally, we are hugely critical of the fact that the Government has missed targets. There is a lack of urgency to tackle this worrying rise in emissions from Ireland. This is happening at a time of record budget surpluses. The Government has a unique opportunity to invest that money in housing infrastructure, for sure, but also in climate infrastructure. Instead, there has been a lack of urgency and a delay. As I said, the auction for offshore wind last week, the first of its kind, was welcome. However, it is disappointing to see delays in the roll-out of floating terminal wind generation capacity. The future of offshore wind lies in being able to develop both floating and fixed platforms and yet we are seeing no urgency from Government. This is a time when we should be seeing massive investment by the Government in the development of public transport infrastructure, cycling and active infrastructure. During National Bike Week, there should have been a big announcement on such infrastructure. We are not seeing that investment. I appeal to the Tánaiste to take up the constructive proposals we are putting forward that would enable us to meet our climate targets and would tackle this worrying rise in emissions.

I appreciate the Deputy's criticisms but we must be fair that the offshore wind auction was a significant milestone-----

It absolutely was.

-----in the drive towards offshore wind energy in this country. The 5 GW target is now in sight. I would argue that people could not see that target a year ago. The auction gives us concrete sight of that target. It will be challenging because we must get the ports ready. They are coming back with their business plans and so forth. The infrastructure and grid pieces require attention. However, the jigsaw is coming together for offshore wind. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, is up and running and essentially, a new CEO has been appointed. All these initiatives have occurred in the past two years.

Active travel across the country has been transformed. The funding that has been allocated to active travel initiatives by this Government over the past two and a half years is unprecedented. It is having an impact. I was recently at the opening of a greenway by Páirc Uí Chaoimh, for example. Roscommon might be down there at some stage, Deputy Naughten.

Is the greenway to get people in quickly or to get them out quickly?

There are plenty of opportunities for picnics and everything else. In the local community, you can get the sense of the transformation that is occurring. There are some very exciting projects in every town and city across the country on active travel. I make that basic point.

On industry, I visited the PepsiCo facility last week. Some 25% of the its annual energy needs will from now on be met by the largest solar panel roof installation. Industry is also moving at pace.